Finally, somebody’s out there to stick up for ME, and who better than the Governator?
Hello,
Families and the private sector are the main actors in online safety. But government has an important role to play as well. Government can make it easier for families and others to purchase the right technological tools, as well as help educate people of all ages about how to protect themselves online. Government is also the only entity that can hold people accountable when they cross certain lines.
Cyberbullying is one of those lines.
State governments are beginning to address this threatening behavior. The California legislature recently passed Assembly Bill 86. The legislation authorizes school officials to suspend or recommend for expulsion students who engage in harassment using electronic devices. Most important, it includes electronic messages that originate off school grounds. It is perhaps the strongest legislation of its kind in the country.
The cyberbullying bill now awaits signature by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger has refused to sign any bill until the California state government passes a budget….
Wait! You say Ah-nold won’t stick up for me? Oh, whatever shall I do with all these Cyberbullies who come to my blog just to be mean to me?!?!?
Yes, I know that many kids today confuse their online lives with real life, sometimes with horrible consequences. And hanging is too good for any adult who uses any opportunity to be cruel to a child (just as slapping is too good for kids who do the same). But sometimes I look at stuff like this — virtual bullying? — and I think maybe David Brooks was right the other day when, after seeing the stoic way that the Chinese move on in the face of devastating personal disasters, "you do wonder if we Americans are a nation of whiners."
The chances of a bill like that actually doing any good is questionable to say the least. The worst bullies are the ones who are too clever to be caught. The stupid ones usually pick on the ‘wrong’ kids and end up being clobbered, often by several ‘wrong’ kids who have had enough. While cyberspace can hide a bully’s identity, somewhere, somehow, we’ve got to teach people the virtue of simply ignoring the bully online, closing one’s webpage or whatever if necessary, and simply not giving said bully the opportunity to do so. This law may give the state a way of dealing with the vicious, stupid ones, but it won’t touch the even more vicious smart ones.
Climb every mountain,
Chevrolet every stream
Google every raindrop
Sue when you find a seam
The hills are alive
With the sound of bodybuilders
Singing songs they have sung
Since they immigrated.
The wind fills my heart
With the vapor of biceps
But at least I can say
I’ve been governated.
When I was 13 back in 1989, I got online with my modem dialing up the local bulletin boards and Compuserve. I didn’t dare tell anyone at school what a computer dork I was.
Nowadays the nerds are the ones who aren’t on the latest networking site and aren’t savvy enough to know the latest IM or text message speak.
I’m all about getting rid of bullying in schools, but this definitely crosses the line!
Why aren’t the parents taking control here? They shouldn’t be on Myspace at school – what happens off school grounds shouldn’t be the school’s responsibility.
If they were taunted while hanging out at the malt shop after school 50 years ago, what would the school have done?